Nichole Barnes is the Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer at Pinterest. She has made meaningful progress with the ERG program by developing clear structures to support the internal Pinclusion and Pinspiration groups and embed their work. Pinterest started compensating Community leadership members, transitioned from communities that were loosely connected and anchored their efforts to ladder up directly to the company culture and business goals. Nichole was also instrumental in Pinterest increasing women in leadership by 20% in two years, well before the five-year goal timeline.
She is a strengths-based leader, meaning she leans into the strengths of people and groups to listen and learn how to best energize and support them. To help increase Pinterest’s impact beyond the company, Nichole oversees the Pinterest Elevates Program, which supports small business owners worldwide. Stemming from the core mission to create a platform that builds a sense of belonging, Pinterest Elevates offers monetary and strategic support to help uplift business owners who are people of color, have disabilities, are LGBTQ+ and/or women. This program has allowed the organization to bring real-life impact to smaller businesses that play an essential role in their local communities.
Favorite Quote: If DEI is a body, then Data is the lungs...Building a diverse organization requires intentionality and
collective action—let’s ensure we are leaning into numbers to look at the whole picture. - Nichole Barnes